There have been 188 ‘bird strikes’ at Dublin Airport in the past three years, in which birds collided with planes or were sucked into their engines.
Dublin Airport Authority (daa) has described the collisions as “high-risk events” that have the potential to bring down aircraft, pointing to the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ in 2009.
There were also 105 collisions involving hares at the airport, which most often involved animals being “ingested directly into an aircraft engine” while planes were moving on the runway, according to the DAA.
One such incident occurred on November 20 last year, when up to six hares were struck by an aircraft. The airport’s runway had to close as a result of the “multiple hare strike”.
The daa responded to the incident by undertaking a controlled shoot at Dublin Airport, in which 35 hares were terminated.
A spokesperson for the authority said the termination was “a reluctant measure” that was taken following the incident in November, and an increased number of hare sightings by pilots.
The more usual method of hare-population control at the airport is a catch-and-release system, which saw 203 hares captured and relocated to Kildare and Wicklow last year.
“Aviation safety is of paramount importance for any airport operator,” said the spokesperson. “Dublin Airport must, like all airports, actively manage wildlife hazards on and surrounding the airport as these present a significant aviation safety risk.”
Specific safety risks include the “ingestion of one of more birds into an aircraft engine while it is on arrival, departure or close to the airport”, according to documents released under Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) regulations.
“Such events have brought down aircraft worldwide, as described in the recent film Sully ,” it added.
Sully is a 2016 biopic based on the emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in New York after it collided with a flock of birds in January 2009, disabling both engines.
Figures released under AIE regulations reveal that 60 bird strikes occurred at Dublin Airport last year – an average of five every month.
There was a total of 41 hare strikes during the same period. Some 405 hares were captured for release as part of the airport’s wildlife management plan between 2015 and 2018.
“We have a large hare population because they are protected from predators on the airfield – no foxes can get in the boundary fence,” explained the DAA spokesperson.
